3 Y afo, ancient Jaffa (Gk. Joppa; Ar. Yafa), is situated south of the modern city of Tel Aviv on the coast of Israel between Caesarea and Gaza, about 60 km northwest of Jerusalem. The site consists of an ancient tell built on a kurkar sandstone ridge overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and during various periods also included a sprawling lower city (see Figure 3.1). As Jaffa is a major tell and port along the coast of the southern Levant, its occupation reflects nearly every major period from the Middle Bronze Age through the present (see Chapter 2, “History of Archaeological Research”). Therefore, Jaffa joins a select number of sites that shared extensive connec- tions not only with neighboring sites in the coastal plain but also with distant maritime commercial centers throughout the Mediterranean in many periods. Establishment and Organization Given the site’s signiicance, it is surprising that no long- term research project has been established at the site since Jacob and Haya Kaplan’s excavations. For this reason, the Jafa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP) was estab- lished in January 2007 by Martin Peilstöcker of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Aaron A. Burke of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). he project serves, fundamentally, as the coordinating institu- tion for archaeologists and researchers who share the goals of revealing, researching, preserving, and presenting Jafa’s cultural heritage. Since Jafa is a large archaeological site embedded within a living town with a diverse cultural heritage, the coordination of the project’s eforts and resources is a monumental task requiring the constant attention of its partner institutions. In addition to the founding institutions mentioned above, the project is designed to accommodate participation by any number of interested scholars and institutions, both public and private, whether driven by research or cultural devel- opment. Among these institutional partners are the Old Jafa Development Corporation (OJDC) and the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz (Germany), led by Wolfgang Zwickel. he JCHP, therefore, is divided into a number of projects; their activities, resources, and results are coordinated, shared, and disseminated through the project’s member institutions. While relecting the initial accomplishments of the JCHP following its launch in 2007, this volume rep- resents the beginning of a long-term interdisciplinary cultural heritage project focused on the study of the archaeology and history of Jafa from its earliest phases until the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. he objectives of the JCHP are outlined in this contribu- tion, as are the needs out of which this project was born. As demonstrated here, the JCHP is most appropriately characterized as an institutional framework and is best regarded as an institution in its own right rather than as C HAPTER 1 T HE J AFFA CULTURAL H ERITAGE P ROJECT : O BJECTIVES , O RGANIZATION , STRATEGIES , AND I MPLEMENTATION A ARON A. B URKE AND M ARTIN P EILSTÖCKER University of California, Los Angeles and Israel Antiquities Authority